Comments on: Yowie Video - Is This Australia’s Bigfoot?

By: FreeThinker

FreeThinker — Tue, 22 Aug 2006 13:17:05 +0000

It could be a hoax, but there is not enough light to see clearly. Mainly it’s just odd.

By: crypto_randz

crypto_randz — Sun, 06 Aug 2006 23:34:05 +0000

All i know is that video cameras dont really work that well. Ive seen to many bigfoot footage, and frankly some of the footage is pretty bad. Unlike the Malaysian bigfoot hoaxed that was pretty bad for CRYPTOZOOLOGY. I was hoping that this was going to be the breakthrough unfortunately it wasnt.

By: Dan

Dan — Sun, 06 Aug 2006 23:32:15 +0000

I’ve just been seeing all these comments dismissing this video so easily, that I just had to say something. Not all of it was directed at you, obviously, but others too. If all we do is shrug these things off with no remorse, we’re only setting Cryptozoology back that much further. Also do not get me wrong, I’m not saying this video is real either, but as of right now I haven’t seen much that would make me think it wasn’t.

By: cor2879

cor2879 — Sun, 06 Aug 2006 21:49:16 +0000

The creature in this video really really looks like a wookiee suit.

By: Dan

Dan — Sun, 06 Aug 2006 18:26:46 +0000

Cryto_randz, there are so many things wrong with your logic there that I don’t even know where to begin.

By: crypto_randz

crypto_randz — Sun, 06 Aug 2006 18:23:13 +0000

That video doesnt prove anything it just shows a shaggy dog peeking around the tree. How can any one believe its some strange animal. Well to me the two individuals in the video should had some kind of guns. I hate to say this but the only way to prove that bigfoots exist around the country scientists need a body one of these specimens. Videos are a waste of time.

By: Mnynames

Mnynames — Sun, 06 Aug 2006 13:40:55 +0000

I actually proposed much the same thing a few months back, but it is quite a double-edged sword. Learning the tricks of the hoaxer’s trade would do us all well, but having those skills, we would all be labeled as hoaxers by the skeptics. From their perspective, when any video of a cryptid is brought to light by someone who has faked footage in the past, then that video must be faked as well. Just look at this film. FX artists can witness strange phenomena just as easily as everyone else (They may even be more qualified to recognize it), but because he has the skills that may allow him to replicate it, he is instantly suspect. It would kinda be like Biscardi suddenly showing up with clear and unambiguous footage of a Sasquatch. Even if it surpassed the Patterson film for clarity, there would be few here, I think, who would believe him. He’s cried wolf far too many times.

Not telling people your footage is faked is dangerous, but you’d learn a lot about your fellow cryptozoologists’ skills of perception. After they learned the truth though, I doubt they’d be your fellows anymore. Still, there should be a way to accomplish this. I suppose showing it to other researchers, but keeping it under your hat (Not releasing it to the wider public for scrutiny) and making no claims as to its veracity might work. A, “Hey guys, I found this film, but have no details on it and don’t know if it’s real, what do you think?” might work. The trouble is, ultimately, it’s still deception, and that’s not exactly a trait that should be fostered in this field.

A better way might be to hold a workshop with FX artists to see how they do things, and whether or not their tricks can be picked out on screen. Researchers would not really be learning how to fake things, or doing any faking themselves, but they would gain more insight into how fakes are made, and how to recognize them. These FX guys could even experiment with Ghillie suits, Wookiee costumes, and off the rack gorilla suits as well, so that we could see if someone could produce a convincing film with such basic supplies.

Food for thought.

By: MojoHotep

MojoHotep — Sun, 06 Aug 2006 02:20:36 +0000

I’m gonna catch alot grief from this post, but it occured to me today, if we all (researchers and enthusiast) start trying to create our own yowie and bigfoot hoaxes, we might learn what to look for when we are looking at video and trying to decide the big question “Hoax or Real”. The best way to beat ‘em sometimes, is to join ‘em. For a while, maybe.

Just a thought, but, I think, maybe one to consider.

By: sschaper

sschaper — Fri, 04 Aug 2006 23:30:43 +0000

I don’t know how people can be so sure it is a wookie suit when there is so very little real information in the image, which has been enhanced to or beyond any useful level. The only time we get real detail other than noise is when the animal takes off on all fours, at which point it reminds me of nothing so much as a beaver, which don’t live down under.

When the object is frozen by the tree, the detail is so poor you can’t tell it’s fur from the tree bark. It is very open to imagining patterns. At first I thought I saw a pattern in what we now are to think is the fur, that looked like a primate, and I thought ‘how crude’ but it was my human pattern-recognition imagination at work.

It could be a hoax, but I think those who are so sure of it are, like me at first, seeing things.

It behaves like a real animal, though not like a primate, but more like an herbavore, perhaps a ground-dwelling koala variant. We have no indication in the film of scale, I would point out.

By: Mnynames

Mnynames — Fri, 04 Aug 2006 12:21:23 +0000

Good point, Mojohotep. I’m reminded of Jojo the Dog-Faced Boy, Lionel the Lion-Man, and other hirsute sideshow stars. They look a lot like Wookiees to me too. On a somewhat related note, I also noticed how the hair is darker around the nose and mouth, like it’s been stained. I’ve seen that on many a light-coloured dog with curly hair, like poodles and bichon frisse (Not sure of the spelling on that one).

I would have to say that if this is a hoax (And I’m still willing to admit the possibility), it’s a darn good one, with a lot of thought put into both appearance and behaviour. Perhaps someone’s been reading all of our comments here about hoaxes and taking notes…